Vatican: Russia is the Most Religious Country in Europe

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ROMe

A huge majority of Russians believe in God: 82% according to a report published by the Public Opinion foundation and Wednesday, a sociological institute associated with the synod of the orthodox Russian church for youth. The report has a database of responses gathered during the last few months from 1,500 people from the age of 18 years and older and residing in 44 regions in Russia.

The outcome is very surprising. In a country where atheism has been taught for several generations, which has established university faculties and at least one museum dedicated to the topic, and which has tried to spread it in many parts of the world, only 13 interviewees stated that they were definitely atheist, while 5% said they were not sure. Most of the atheists are men (68%), while only 32% are women. Atheism seems to be more popular in the lower social classes, namely workers or poor people who do not even have enough to eat. 27% of those who said that they believe in the existence of God do not belong to any organized religion. This was the response of 34% of young people between 18 and 24 years of age and 38% of students. 4% stated that they are Muslim; there were very few Buddhists, Catholics, Protestants, or Jews. 50% of the believers are Orthodox Christians and most belong to the Russian Orthodox Church.

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H/t: AQ

Moscow Patriarchate Grateful to Government for Stopping Homo-Parade

Moscow, May 30, Interfax - The Russian Orthodox Church is grateful to the Moscow city authorities and law enforcers for preventing a gay parade attempted in the city last Saturday.

Responding to questions from Interfax-Religion on Monday, head of the Synodal Department for Church and Society Relations Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin said the authorities "quite politely prevented an instance of propaganda of homosexuality which could have been witnessed by children and teenagers who crowded the two venues of the action."

He expressed hope that in the future the authorities of Russia and Moscow in similar cases "will listen to the voice of their own people, the majority of whom do not accept the propaganda of homosexuality, instead of foreign pressure that was exerted before the action and continues now."

http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=dujour&div=49

Russian bishop: America has problems with democracy

Editor: If you read between the lines, you can see that he thinks the USA has too much Democracy and needs more Socialism.

Saratov, May 11, Interfax - Head of Patriarchal Dioceses in the USA Archbishop Justinian of Narofominsk believes the USA still has to work hard on its democracy.

"Economic living standards in the US are much higher than those in Russia. Our situation is aggravated by poverty and sometimes unbearable living conditions in the country's regions. At the same time, I wouldn't regard the situation in the United States as ideal," Archbishop Justinian said in an interview published by the Pravoslaviye i Sovremennost (Orthodoxy and Modern Times) magazine of the Saratov Diocese.

According to him, several thousand strong demonstrations may be held in America where people freely express their opinions and protests but "they often receive no response from the Government: "Do you want to speak out? You are welcome, this is America, and we have democracy. But the authorities will continue to pursue their own government policy."

"It is only evident. There are problems here just as in any other state, including problems with relations of nationalities," Archbishop Justinian said.

However, he believes that a true democracy or "to put it better, a true freedom of which we sometimes dream is unfeasible on Earth," as "a true freedom may be only in Christ."

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Russian Church: endless discourse on expensive possessions of clergy as a sign of spiritual disorder

Moscow, April 15, Interfax - The Russian Orthodox Church warns believers against focusing too much attention on material matters.

"I happened to visit palaces in full feather and wander about slums in a ragged cassock. I am sure that the Church accepts both. We should not focus too much attention on either of the above," head of the Synodal Department for Church and Society Relations Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin states in his answer to journalist Ivan Semenov.

Semenov has published an open letter calling Father Vsevolod to offer his apologies for his public address where he asserted that the members of clergy have the right to wear expensive things as such things emphasize the social prestige of the Church.

In his answer, Father Vsevolod stressed that "if Christians endlessly discourse on the "glamour and misery" of clothes and watches, it is a sign of their spiritual disorder. Or envy. Or an undying quasi-dissident habit to curse everything which is strong, expensive and powerful."

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Moscow Patriarchate: Russia's mission is to become the Holy Rus

Moscow, April 8, Interfax - The Russian Orthodox Church called Russians to implement the Christian mission.

"People's Christian mission is their duty, objective and an appeal to national humility, self-restriction and sacrifice," head of the Synodal Department for Church and Society Relations Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin said at the international conference of Church and Society Relations held Friday in Moscow.

According to him, "if we understand this appeal and this mission, if the spiritual and moral revival of our people would not stop under the influence of external criticism or internal doubts, but still expands many times, we may as the Russian people again become a Christian nation living in the Holy Rus."

Father Vsevolod mentioned that about one third of Russia's population includes people who have "a certain religious experience, a well-developed religious literature, who pray in churches and at home and attend religious services at least sometimes."

Thus, he continued, "it is incorrect to refer to Orthodox Russians as some minority which is within some statistical margin."

Father Vsevolod stated that there were people, in particular in the West, who perceived Orthodoxy "as some romantic image of a dilapidated village church surrounded by birch-trees and serviced by a priest in a ragged robe."

"It is quite wrong to choose Orthodox faith as a restricted area for spiritual relaxation," Father Vsevolod emphasized.

According to him, Christianity is "an omnipresent flare which blesses everything, burns things that have to be burnt and melts people into a new creation," and an attempt to push religion out of the social life and present it as "a provincial restricted area where a citizen of a large city may plunge once in a half year to release stress is a wrong attitude."

Link to inter-fax...

75 of 100 victims of religious intolerance are Christians - Metropolitan Hilarion

Moscow, March 24, Interfax - Head of the Synodal Department for External Church Relations Metropolitan Hilarion cited data according to which Christians prevail among victims of religious intolerance.

"According to the data of non-governmental organization Aid To The Church In Need 75 of 100 victims killed from religious intolerance have been Christians in recent years," the Metropolitan said in his interview to Izvestia daily on Thursday.

The Metropolitan points out that in the majority of states where Christian minority is being persecuted, Christians have lived for many centuries, "even when local political regimens declared themselves more radical than today."

"It is today when all states have undertaken obligations to protect human rights, outflow of Christians from certain countries has increased. I believe it proves the failure of modern world policy on religious freedom and lack of interest to religious education," the Metropolitan said.

According to him, Christians are often fell victims of political mistakes made by Western states.

"The situation is difficult in Iraq. According to some data, half of 1,4 million Christian population has left the country since 2003. Without giving any evaluations to political situation in Iraq before NATO interference, I'd like to mention that Christians there were not physically exterminated. Foreign military invasion has made many Christians hostages of insufficiently considered NATO actions," the Metropolitan said.

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Russia Refuses to Sign Useless UN Resolution on Sodomy

Editor:  The other day, we got wind that the White House had lied to Mexican representatives about what the Vatican thought of their resolution. The Obama Administration lied about something. Anyhow, it's not too surprising. There are really messed up countries who signed this. What a lot of spilt ink for a population that comprises two or three percent of the population at best. Notice some of the exceptions, though, Russia didn't sign. Go Putin. Ireland signed? That's ridiculous. All we can say now is, go Putin, go Medvev.

Bulgaria signing this would be sort of understandable, but Ireland?

Joint statement on ending acts of violence and related human rights violations based on sexual orientation & gender identity

Delivered by Colombia on behalf of: Albania, Andorra, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, the Central African Republic, Chile, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Estonia, Fiji, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala,  Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lichtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the former-Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Malta, the Marshall Islands, Mexico, Micronesia, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Palau, Panama, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Rwanda, Samoa, San Marino, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Tuvalu, the United States of America, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Ukraine, Uruguay,  Vanautu and Venezuela
1.       We recall the previous joint statement on human rights, sexual orientation and gender identity, presented at the Human Rights Council in 2006;

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